Friday, 20 May 2011

Reaping The Old Reward…

The Commonwealth is a bastion of global homophobia, often bucking the worldwide trend towards sexual orientation equality, with increased state-sanctioned threats and repression in Malawi, Uganda, Gambia, Malaysia, Cameroon and Nigeria. The 54 Commonwealth member states comprise one quarter of the UN membership and one third of all humanity. Of these Commonwealth countries, 46 still criminalise same-sex relations in all circumstances, with penalties including 25 years' jail in Trinidad and Tobago and 20 years plus flogging in Malaysia. Several countries stipulate life imprisonment: Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania and Bangladesh. These 46 homophobic Commonwealth countries account for more than half of the 76 countries in the world that still have a total prohibition on homosexuality.

And that, according to Tatchell, is all the fault of the British Empire:

Nearly all the Commonwealth's anti-gay laws are the poisonous legacy of British colonialism. They were originally imposed by the British government in the 19th century, during the period of colonial rule – and never repealed when the former colonies won their freedom.

And why not? Well, because we’ve brainwashed them, clearly:

The post-independence leaders retained the homophobic mindset of their colonial masters. Today, many of their countrymen and women absurdly proclaim that the legal proscription of homosexuality is an authentic expression of indigenous national culture and tradition.

And whereas the loony left would normally be only too happy to endorse any bizarre belief that a native population held against the forces of modernity, and would regard with horror the notion that it was something imposed on them against their will by the West, for some reason, with this particular cause, that role is reversed.

18 comments:

Rob
said...

Well, he's part of the way there, at least he notices that foreigners can be nasty and prejudiced. His laughable and insane idea that this is the fault of English Victorians is just the usual Lefty contortions to blame us for all of the ills of the world.

The chap really is a fool. If he had ever met an African, a non-gay one that is, he would realise that they view his sort of behaviour with the very strongest contempt and revulsion and that this is a deeply ingrained part of African culture.

The codification of colonial laws was in part in response to African culture, not the other way round.

The classic in this area is that Hutus, Tutsi and Twa were never tribes and only invented by colonialism (Belgian) - an idiot notion that denies their own oral histories and Twa genetics (they are pygmies).I nearly died of boredom reading your rehash AP - only kept going waiting for a punchline - none needed as his words make a mockery of themselves.

People from other cultures and origins and nations make up their own mind about things. But the left-leaning 'hater of choices' will tell you, in a roundabout way, that it is the nasty whites who did it all.

The inference being other peoples are so inferior they are incapable, even now, of making decisions for themselves.

If Mr Tatchell, who is listed as a Human Rights Activist, is trying to do some good in Africa I suggest he campaign for the right of Africans to use DDT to stop African children dying at the rate of almost 400 a day.

He has a high profile which would be useful in gaining publicity for this cause.

This current campaign of his to attract attention to the plight of African gays seems pretty self centered and almost patronising.

Maybe he can't see the wood for the trees? Deal with the big stuff first. get a successful track record for doing good work and then tackle his own pet projects.

I'm an old leftie in the sense that I believe we are social animals and economics is the religion of the rich. Tatchel is into priggishness and a sort of snobbish reverse morality. Probably drives a Volvo to his second home.

'If he had ever met an African, a non-gay one that is, he would realise that they view his sort of behaviour with the very strongest contempt and revulsion'

Of course Tatchell has met Africans like this- he got rather too close for comfort to some of Mugabe's goons a few years back and,unsurprisingly, came off the worse as a result. Andliving where he does, by the Elephant & Castle, he certainly knows that homophobic black Africans are a rising force, demographically speaking.What he cannot countenance is acknowledging that their hatred for his way of life has autonomous origins, and isn't some colonial left-over. Hence his unhinged rants about 'the poisonous legacy of British colonialism'. As a gay, leftie Australian he's probably 'thinking with the blood' and not his head, about this matter.